The Longest Table: Lily Sweet King Gives Power to Students’ Voices

When 18-year-old Lily Sweet King, a longtime member of Troop
465 out of Girl Scouts of the Florida Panhandle, started thinking
about what she wanted to focus on for her Girl Scout Gold Award
project, she quickly recognized a gap—too few Gold Award projects she
had seen directly involved students. Additionally, she had recently
learned about several racist incidents happening in local high schools
and about how Tallahassee is the most economically segregated city in
the United States. Taking all of this information into account, she
knew exactly what she had to do: she would use her hospitality skills
to mitigate tensions and build bridges among her peers. Her Gold Award
project would have students at the center of it and work to give them
a greater voice in the community.

Cue the “Longest Table—Class of 2018” event, which brought students
together for critical conversations about how to prevent bullying and
strengthen relationships that promote peace, equality, truth, and
unity, both among the students themselves and within the community at
large. That’s the G.I.R.L.
Agenda in action! Lily Sweet had previously heard of a similar
event held by Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, and she thought
replicating it specifically for students would be great. With the
support of teachers and mentors, coupled with an unstoppable drive to
succeed, Lily Sweet planned, raised funds for (including writing her
very own grant), and carried out a dinner party, hosting 120 of her
peers from all 12 public and private Leon County high schools.

Lily Sweet’s event was the very first time that students from all
community high schools came together. Students arrived as strangers,
but many left as friends. “It was a powerful moment,” Lily Sweet said.
“In high school, it can be awkward to talk to kids you don’t know,
especially when it comes to tense issues, so I designed conversation
cards for the event to get people talking. It’s so important for
people, especially youth, to discuss the issues they see in their
communities and come together to find viable solutions.”

The conversation started out with lighter questions, like “What
school do you go to?” and “What activities are you involved in?” and
later moved on to harder topics, like lack of school resources and
economic segregation. “These conversations were able to show the
students that although some of us might go to a school in the north
side of town and others attend schools on the south side of town,
we’re not so different at all,” Lily Sweet said. “That’s the problem
with economic segregation: it makes you think you are different. But
when you come together and engage in conversation, you can actually
see a lot of similarity and find solutions to your problems.”

Overall, Lily Sweet’s Longest Table event was a huge success. She
even wrote an essay about it that won her a national award from the
Heather Heyer Foundation and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation for
standing against hate and working to help ease racial divisions in her
community. As part of the award, Lily was invited to ride in the Rose
Parade in Pasadena, California, on New Year’s Day 2018, an experience
she says she’ll never forget.

Susan Bro, the mother of a young civil rights activist named Heather
Heyer who was killed while standing up for social justice with her
friends in August of 2017, was impressed with Lily Sweet’s Gold Award
project. “Lily Sweet’s project exemplifies the concepts of inclusion
and reaching out of our comfort zones to expand our circle of friends
and acquaintances,” said Susan, who is the cofounder of the Heather
Heyer Foundation. “Finding points of connection with those around us
is a key part of strengthening our communities. What better way to do
that than by breaking bread together?”

"Finding points of connection with those around us is a key
part of strengthening our communities. What better way to do that than
by breaking bread together?”

When Lily Sweet looks back at all that she has been able to
accomplish at such a young age, she says she couldn’t have done it
without Girl Scouts: “Without Girl Scouts, I don’t think I would have
ever thought to even do something like this. Being a Girl Scout has
given me a lot of confidence to speak out, take on big challenges, and
know the difference between right and wrong.”

"Being a Girl Scout has given me a lot of confidence to speak
out, take on big challenges, and know the difference between right and wrong.”

Lily Sweet also credits her teachers and mentors with helping her
become the young woman she is today. One of those teachers is Joshua
Stewart, the Student Government Association (SGA) and leadership class
teacher and adviser at Leon High School. He was the one who encouraged
Lily Sweet to take her project idea to the next level by preparing a
presentation to deliver to 18 other high schools in five different
counties across the Panhandle of Florida, while also offering to help
her with any available SGA resources.

When asked to describe his accomplished mentee, Joshua said, “Lily
Sweet has really grown in the areas of risk-taking, volunteering for
leadership, and putting herself under the scrutiny of the public eye,
and she is managing it all very well. She understands that the only
way to make a lasting positive impact on the community is through the
people you elevate, equip, and empower on a daily basis to accomplish
what no one person could. I think Girl Scouts has been able to help
her develop the interpersonal skills she needs and expose her to a
wide range of experiences prior to high school that have allowed her
to develop into a confident young woman.” He also expressed feeling
extremely proud of Lily Sweet’s work ethic and her excellent
time-management and people skills, which made her Gold Award project a
success and allowed her to make a positive difference in her community.

"She understands that the only way to make a lasting positive
impact on the community is through the people you elevate, equip, and
empower on a daily basis to accomplish what no one person could."

Lily Sweet’s advice to younger girls thinking about pursuing their
own Gold Award is to stick with it. “It’s going to be hard, but as
long as you have a good work ethic, you can do it,” she said. “At
first it’s difficult to figure out what you want to do and how you
will do it, but in the end, it’s all worth it.”

The weekend that her Longest Table event was originally scheduled,
Hurricane Irma hit Florida, and Lily Sweet was forced to reschedule
the entire event. “This was very stressful for me because I had to
make sure that everyone knew of the new date and time, had to
reorganize the food and table delivery, and had to do so much more,”
she explained. But like a true, seasoned G.I.R.L. (Go-getter,
Innovator, Risk-taker, Leader)™, Lily Sweet succeeded by
staying calm and readjusting under the new circumstances. The entire
ordeal even made her realize that she loves event planning and wants
to pursue a related career in the future.

As Lily Sweet works on completing her senior year of high school and
waits to hear back from the colleges she’s applied to, she hopes other
students will host Longest Table events to keep a running dialogue
going on the issues important to them. She recently presented her
project at a district meeting where many kids showed interest in
holding their own events. Lily Sweet educated them on her process so
they could go out and duplicate it. And Lily Sweet’s sister, a Girl
Scout Ambassador named Creed who will be a senior at Leon High School
next year, is also interested in hosting the Longest Table event with
her peers. There’s a lot of momentum in the community to keep the
conversation going, and Lily couldn’t be more excited about the role
she’s been able to play in elevating students’ voices and bringing her
community together.

“Girl Scouts is a great way to meet people and learn life lessons
that you’ll use for the rest of your life,” she emphasized. “I am so
glad I got to do this project through Girl Scouts!”

"Girl Scouts is a great way to meet people and learn life
lessons that you’ll use for the rest of your life."

Way to go, Lily Sweet! Your community is so lucky to have a brave
and passionate leader like you on her way to greatness. Thank you for
putting your interests, skills, and time to use for the greater good
of your community and peers. We’re so proud to call you a Girl Scout!